The Adam Mockler Show - Trump Runs Scared after Chicago BEATS HIM!

Episode Date: September 13, 2025

Adam Mockler with MeidasTouch Network welcomes Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to break down Trump's relentless attacks on Chicago, and him finally backing off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have some breaking news that shows what happens when Democrats effectively push back. Donald Trump has been successfully outmaneuvered by Democrats in Illinois and announced that he is backing off the city of Chicago. To talk about this, I'm going to bring in the Secretary of State of Illinois in just one moment. But first, let me lay the groundwork because just two or three weeks ago, Donald Trump posted this AI image. The president of the United States said Chicago was about to find out why it's called the Department of War. And it's an image of my city where I live and work and run macular media being invaded by our military, incredibly inflammatory. And now Republicans have the goal to say that Democrats are the inflammatory ones because

of some tweet with zero likes or whatever. But either way, this article reads, Chicago leaders are doing a victory lap on Friday after standing up to President Trump, who said he's backing off Chicago and sending troops to Memphis. Chicago's pushback could be a model for other cities. here's the reality check. Chicago is seen in nearly 30% reduction in homicides in a 38% reduction in shootings since last year, according to Chicago police data. Pritzker said this is illegal, it's inefficient. He held this press conference where he talked about Charlie Kirk just a few days back, and I'd say he might have had one of the best answers. You know, we're talking about a kind of a lot of people.

And I think of the people who are just going to be and the United States. So, you know, I'm going to start at the people who are going to be a different and so that we're going to be able to get you. It's a lot of the people. It's really, you know, and the United States.

And this is, you know, the last, I think, and we're going to do Honestly, you know, we're supposed to ask for a bit of a part of the United States. And honestly, you couldn't ask for a better response from a Democratic politician. honestly you couldn't ask for a better response from a democratic politician i'm now going to bring in illinois secretary of state to break this all down i hope you guys enjoy drop a like and watch until the end of support check this out i am very proud to be joined today by illinois secretary of state alexi genulius how you doing today sir how i am thanks for having me man yeah i always enjoy

chatting with you about the more local issues in chicago but lately chicago has been a more national issue as Donald Trump has been directly attacking the city via AI truth social posts. We'll get to the national matters in just one second. But let's start a little bit more local. Illinois law prohibits the sharing of license plate reader data for immigration or abortion-related enforcement. Yet your office and other offices in Illinois found some really interesting stuff in an investigation. Can you run us through what you found and what the consequences are? Yeah. And frankly, I can't believe this hasn't gotten more national attention. Let me step back. We passed a couple years back the first bill in the country to make sure that automatic license plate reading technology does not track women who come into Illinois for legal abortions or for other legal purposes. This is a huge deal. Automatic license plate readers do provide a service to help law enforcement with kidnapping victims.

They can help with carjacking, stolen vehicles, so there is a use for it. However, we saw this coming. We passed this bill to make sure that law enforcement would not use these for purposes, which were not outlined by this legislation. And what we found was that law enforcement from Texas and from Border Patrol was actually reaching out to try and get information from these automatic license pay readers to track people. This is incredibly dangerous. This is like big brother on steroids.

And so we found this out. We conducted an audit. We're looking into it. We hope other states also pass similar legislation because this is, you know, a huge issue. It's a huge privacy violation in multiple ways. And I guess my question is, what enforcement tools are you pushing for to prevent future abuses like this. So, again, we put in place systems to make sure this doesn't happen.

That's why we conducted this audit. That's how we're able to find out this information. We're working with law enforcement here in Illinois to make sure that they do not give this information out. But again, more fundamentally, we have to make sure that these cameras are regulated so that they can't be used for surveillance purposes to track the data of innocent people. you know, it's horrifying to think that the government can find out when Adam goes to a movie or where he or she shops or when you go to visit a friend. And so especially in light of what's coming out of Washington, D.C., we want to make sure we protect people.

And to me, and this is not just a Democrat or a Republican issue, everyone universally is horrified by the possibility that their personal privacy and their personal. data will be violated. That's why our bill is so important. I'm proud of the work we've done, but we cannot let law enforcement use this for immigration purposes to track women who are coming to get abortions or for any purposes outside of what's outlined to keep our roads and highway safe. Yeah, whether you're a Democrat or you're Republican, you should be protected from any sort of surveillance misuse. And I'm very, very glad that you are leading the charge on that. It's especially crucial at a time when we're seeing more federal. posturing towards the city of Chicago.

I want to talk a little bit about this because we can all start with the fundamental fact that crime is bad. The goal should be to minimize crime in any way possible through social programs, through funding our police departments, but that's not what Donald Trump is proposing. He's proposing a unilateral illegal occupation of Chicago. First of all, can you run me down how you think J.B. Pritzker has, the governor, has responded thus far. And Governor Pritzker's response has been, in my opinion, very, very,

solid because he's willing to coordinate and work with federal officials, but just not when Donald Trump is overreaching in this manner. So how do you read this and how are you thinking about this? Well, first of all, I give our governor a lot of credit. He's trying not to be partisan. He's saying let's solve crime. Let's improve public safety in Chicago and throughout the state of Illinois. But let's do it in ways that actually move the needle. Let's use data. Let's make sure we do it in an efficient manner? And, you know, having the military roam the streets of Chicago does not create safety. It creates chaos, panic, mayhem. It's a colossal waste of resources, especially at a time when violent crime is down. Yes, public safety is a huge issue in Chicago.

But crime rates have gone down. So what we've said and what the governor has said is, why don't we focus spending resources and allocating resources to programs that are actually effective to increase public safety and to bring crime down? The irony of this window dressing BS that Donald Trump is doing by sending troops here, he's actually cutting funding for programs, like community violence intervention programs, which, by the way, work. That's based on data. Violent crimes have gone down, especially in these targeted communities. carjackings have gone down, especially some of the work that we do with our task force that looks at stolen vehicles, carjackings. To give you an idea, in 2021, there were about 1,800 carjackings.

This year, we were at about 300 because of the work that we're doing, using data, using innovative technology, working with law enforcement and insurance companies, the private sector to bring these rates down. And yet they're cutting funding for the programs that work just so he can do this nonsensical, dangerous window dressing of having troops storm up and down downtown Chicago, which is complete bullshit and does nothing to make our streets safer. Yeah, my team and I did the math. In California spent $120 million on the National Guard deployment that happened when Donald Trump

did that a few months ago. And that $120 million would be enough to fund about 1,200 off. officers for a year in Chicago. This is obviously a hypothetical. The money doesn't translate from state to state, but the point is the money spent on this can be used in way more efficient means. The indicators of crime are, you know, social programs or wealth inequality, never how much military is deployed in a city. I want to ask, what was your reaction when you saw that AI image Trump posted of Chicago literally as a war zone? I was, I don't even know how to put it into words. It's crazy. And so as someone who has grown up in the city, who lives in the city, who's raising his family in the city, I care deeply about it. And so obviously I've got a lot of pride in my hometown, but also it's dangerous. It's reckless. It's stupid. It's offensive. Again, the decisions that I make as an elected official, and I'm proud of this, it's based on data. It's based on numbers. It's not my ideology that I don't want the National Guard here.

It's a, as you mentioned, a colossal waste of resources that could be better spent implementing programs that actually move the needle that actually help out, which have proven to help out. So at the same time, they're cutting these programs. He's going to send troops to Chicago, which, by the way, per capita, if you care about data, which is present, who I think is actually illiterate, would even look at, they would say there are cities per capita that are a lot more data. where crime is a lot more prevalent, both perceived and real, and yet he's only targeting blue cities. That's why this is just such window dressing, such BS. They're not doing their homework. They don't care. They do not care about crime. They do not care about public safety. They do not care about making Chicago a safer, a safer place to live and work. What they care about is control, what they care about is bullshit optics, and what they care about is fear and

keeping people where they want them to. The other point that I think the governor has done a really good job of making. The troops themselves, the National Guard troops themselves, they were not trained to roam the streets and pick up garbage and do all this nonsense that Donald Trump wants them to do. They are offended by this too. We've spoken to them. We've spoken to police. They don't want to be here either. That's not their job. So let's focus on programs that actually help move the needle. Let's increase public safety. Let's bring crime down through mechanisms like our task force which has a track record of recovering stolen vehicles

of reducing violent carjacking and there are plenty of programs that do that. So I keep on trying so hard to find something that I agree with Donald Trump on. I like want to. I'm like rooting for something just so I don't have to go to bed like fucking live it every night.

And I cannot, I cannot, he does the opposite of every single thing that I think would make us a better city, better state, better country, better democracy, better planet. And I hope today something happens or it proves me wrong. Thank you, Secretary. Just know that we appreciate all of the work you and the governor do. The on the ground work, the investigations that you guys conduct into these license plate readers, all of this stuff is incredibly important. Donald Trump thinks he can override that with executive power, but he can't. You guys are doing the real work. So again, thank you. And I'd love to have you back on soon.

Thanks, brother. Great to see you. Great to see you as well.